NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAMPINGWORLD.COM 500
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 25, 2015
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS
WALK US THROUGH THE FINAL RESTART AND YOUR TAKE ON IT:
“I couldn’t believe he (Joey Logano) gave me the bottom. I was like ‘man this is a gift.’ I was going to win the race for sure, but that caution came out. I’m fine with the new rule. Everybody is going to debate that we were thinking before the race that they made a good change on the green-white-checkered to go to one and I still feel that way. Per the rules we run second. I can live with that. The No. 22 (Joey Logano) did a great job. He had a hell of a round winning all three races. If he wins the championship he can look back on this round here as the one that set him up.
“I’m proud of what we did today. We did everything we needed to do, just fell about the width of the splitter. You know how I hate that splitter, so, another reason (laughs).”
SHOULD NASCAR OF LET YOU RUN LONGER UNDER THAT GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED BEFORE THROWING THE CAUTION?
“Another 100 yards I would have been in the lead, but NASCAR makes the calls. They are the governing body and I have 100 percent faith in the choices that they make. I’m not going to be too upset about it. I did everything I could. I’m proud of myself. I’m proud of my team. My guys did a good job on pit road. We had a little issue, but if this group sticks together we are going to do great things next year. I believe in all of them. I’m proud of what we did. We can sit here and pout about this day, but we didn’t do good enough in the first two races of this round. If we had done better in those first two races of this round we would not be worried about losing by a splitter. We didn’t do a good job in those first two races. We’ve got to try to win another race before the year is out, have some fun. Martinsville is coming up. I’m excited about that. We’ve got a great team. This is my first year with Greg and we are just going to get better. He is just going to get better. We’ve got a lot to look forward to. It’s disappointing, but I’m proud of the car. We really worked hard and we did a hell of a job today.”
ON HIS DAY:
“I thought we had a good shot starting on the inside for sure. Brad (Keselowski) was pushing me fine. I was worried when the 22 (Joey Logano) went to the top. Brad wasn’t going push me so it would give the 22 the win. But, Brad was pushing me fine. They had an accident and needed to throw the yellow, so it was dangerous to keep… Everybody is going to ask me a hundred times how I feel about the green-white-checkered rule now. I feel good about it. It was a good safe call. The race ended per the rules and I’m totally okay with that. They decided officially who won the race and Joey won it. He has had an awesome round, unbelievable really. We did everything we could today, almost perfect. We tried really hard.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS
ON HIS DAY:
“Talladega can surprise you at any time. I actually had a lot of fun out there. We had an awesome 3M Chevrolet and it was so much fun battling up front even if we got shuffled back a little bit I was able to drive up through there. I was really looking forward to working with Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. there at the end. When those guys swapped I was like ‘oh man this is going to be tough.’ I thought maybe my only chance was splitting Joey (Logano) and getting inside of him and getting three-wide and maybe shuffling him out. Unfortunately, I had no idea all that crazy stuff that was going on behind me. I know the first restart or green-white-checkered I just kind of misjudged it and I nailed him (Joey Logano) and almost spun him out and then they started stacking up behind us. Crazy, absolutely crazy, but boy what a relief; I know my wife who was sick at home was very relieved as well. We are in that is awesome.”
YOUR EMOTIONS ON ADVANCING TO THE NEXT ROUND:
“Oh my gosh. I just cannot believe… this season has been a crazy season for us. But since the Chase started the attitude of this team, the momentum and the execution the things that we weren’t doing earlier in the year we are doing them all right now at the right time. I never thought in a million years I would be looking forward to coming to Talladega to advance through, but boy I did today. What a great racecar, great race team. Watch out we have something for them these next three or four.”
ON HIS LAST TALLADEGA RACE:
“Oh my gosh. That was intense. That was wild. That was crazy. I hate it that I didn’t have Dale Jr in front of me on that last restart. I got kind of excited about pushing him there at the end and get both him and me in the next round. That was pretty smart of the Penske guys to split themselves up. It is unfortunate that we had those two wrecks on those restarts. The restarts are so crucial. Everybody is trying to get all that they can and banging one another. I loved my race car today. My 3M Chevrolet was awesome. I would have loved to have a shot at them there and finish this thing out. I had too much on the line, so all I could do and get a good restart and not lose spots. We were still in jeopardy too. I thought maybe we could push Joey a little bit and then go to the middle and go three wide and try to find a way to help Junior. But we just could never got a chance to see it unfortunately. I had a lot of fun out there. It is fun having a race car that strong. I am so proud of this race team. They never quit, they never give up and I can’t believe we are going to round three. I said all along that if we got to round three, we have an excellent shot to get to Homestead.
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS
“It wasn’t running really well on the restarts. Then at the end I was trying to get out of the way. I don’t know if I clipped the 6 or if he came across as I was coming up. It was one of those days where everything went well until the very end until the bottom fell out on those lap couple of restarts when it cooled off. It has a broken exhaust pipe or something.”
ON HIS DAY:
“We weren’t running very well there at the end on restarts and we were just trying to get out of the way. I don’t know if I clipped the No. 6 (Trevor Bayne) or if he came across as I was coming up. Just one of those days where everything went wrong until the very end. When the bottom fell out those last couple of restarts when it cooled off. It has a broken exhaust pipe or something.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS
DOES NOT ADVANCE TO ELIMINATOR ROUND
DID YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAD TO DO ON THAT FINAL RESTART?
“Which one? The final, final restart? Or, the one where we were only going to have one and not anymore? And then the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) causing the crash. Which one do you want me to talk about?
THERE ARE GOING TO BE A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THAT. DOES THAT TICK YOU OFF?
“Well, I guess if you come up with a new rule every week, we’ll have something to talk about, won’t we?
WHERE DO YOU GO FRO HERE FOR THE NEXT FEW RACES?
“We’ll just go to Martinsville like everybody else.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS
“I felt like I was on the seesaw today. My head was under the back of it. It’s crazy how fast things can change and how much is out of your control. We were sitting out there riding a lap down for about 100 laps thinking that we were going to need an act of God to get back on the lead lap and have a fighting chance. We kept fighting and fighting, and had a good sequence of green-flag stops to establish ourselves in that front single-file line ahead of the guys we were racing. Then we got lucky and got a caution. Once we were back in the game, we felt good about it. But it was still nerve-wracking down to the end. The first one, I spun the 48 slap out in front of me, and I was never on the gas pedal. I was on the brake as hard as I could without locking up the front tires. I was getting hit over and over. The 48 got spun and luckily we didn’t get spun out or our day would have been over.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS
CAN YOU SUM IT ALL UP FOR US?
“I love all the adjectives and adverbs on how the point system works. Escapes, survived, yeah, we are in position now. Now it’s a point’s race. You’ve got the top eight guys and you’ve got to do really good things in these last four races to win the championship. I feel really good about our Haas Automation Chevrolet team and the way that we have worked through both round of this Chase thus far. We’ve got more for them. We will keep going.”
WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE WHEN YOU GET OUT OF THE CAR AND YOU KNOW YOU’VE ADVANCED?
“It feels great, but you can only celebrate for so long because there is a lot more work to be done.”
IS THIS ONE OF THESE RACES THAT YOU ARE GLAD THAT IT’S OVER?
“Oh 10th is great. It just kind of shows everything we have done on the Haas Automation Chevy team to prepare for this and to go through what it takes to get a restrictor plate finish. I’m real proud of the team. All the pit stops and the pit calls and the way the race shook out for us. It seemed like we were in control and we finished solid and now it’s on to these final four. Being in the top eight in points is a goal that every team has. We are there and now we are going to utilize it to the best of our ability.”
WALK ME THROUGH THE FINAL RESTART FROM YOUR STAND POINT:
“I was on the inside lane and we were plus 13 (points). That is the news that I got. My little brother was plus 2 (points) behind me and my teammate Kevin Harvick was on the outside. I was like man we all need to keep going. We don’t need anything big to happen. Going up through the gears in the mirror there was smoke and cars going every which way. It’s crazy how it can come down to a restart right at the end. It’s almost like a jump ball on a buzzer beater is the way this system works.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT ROUND THREE?
“I feel really good with him (Tony Gibson, crew chief); he’s a great team leader. All the guys back at the shop. I’ve won at the final four tracks. It’s now even ground. We are even as the point’s leader going in. You’ve got to do the job to get the ticket to go to Homestead and capitalize on it there.”
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